Tagged: drug-development
30 results
Atisama Therapeutics
Atisama Therapeutics (formerly Rage Bio) is a Melbourne-based clinical-stage biotech developing precision splice-switching oligonucleotide (SSO) therapies for chronic inflammatory disease. Its lead asset, RB042, is an inhaled RNA drug that targets the RAGE receptor to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - a condition affecting hundreds of millions worldwide with few disease-modifying options. Spun out of a collaboration between IP Group Australia, Monash, Murdoch and the University of Western Australia, the company raised a $29M Series A in 2025 and advanced RB042 into Phase 1 clinical trials in 2026.
Illimis Therapeutics
Illimis Therapeutics is a Seoul-based biotechnology company developing protein-based medicines for central nervous system and immune diseases. Its proprietary GAIA (Gas6-mediated Anti-Inflammatory Adaptor) platform builds bispecific fusion proteins that engage the body's TAM receptors to clear misfolded proteins such as amyloid-beta through phagocytosis without triggering the inflammation and ARIA side effects associated with existing antibody drugs. Founded in 2021, the company raised a $42 million Series B in July 2025 and is advancing a lead Alzheimer's candidate, ILM01, toward an IND by the end of 2027.
FibroGen, Inc.
FibroGen, Inc. is a San Francisco biopharmaceutical company that spent three decades building first-in-class medicines around hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) biology. Its best-known drug, roxadustat, is an oral treatment for anemia approved in China, Japan and Europe. After selling its China business to AstraZeneca in 2025 and paying down debt, the company rebranded as Kyntra Bio (Nasdaq: KYNB) in January 2026 to concentrate on oncology and rare disease, led by FG-3246, a first-in-class CD46-targeting antibody-drug conjugate for metastatic prostate cancer.
AmMax Bio., Inc.
AmMax Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Redwood City, California, developing first-in-class cancer therapeutics built on a CSF1R-targeting antibody platform. Founded in 2020 by pharmaceutical veteran Larry Hsu, PhD, in partnership with Amgen, the company advances a pipeline that spans a monoclonal antibody for tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT), a therapy for colorectal cancer minimal residual disease (in partnership with MD Anderson), and a lead antibody-drug conjugate, AMB-104, for acute myeloid leukemia. AmMax's strategy is to de-risk development by combining clinically validated antibodies with established linker-payload technology.
NEOK Bio
NEOK Bio is a Palo Alto-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing bispecific antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for solid tumors. Founded and led by physician-executive Mayank Gandhi and backed by Korean antibody specialist ABL Bio, NEOK launched from stealth in November 2025 with a $75 million Series A. Its dual-targeting approach binds two complementary tumor antigens at once, aiming to widen the therapeutic window and overcome the resistance and toxicity limits of conventional single-target ADCs. The company's two lead programs, NEOK001 (ROR1/B7-H3) and NEOK002 (EGFR/MUC1), both cleared FDA IND review in early 2026 and are headed into Phase 1 studies.
Nuvig Therapeutics
Nuvig Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech in the San Francisco Bay Area developing next-generation immune modulators for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Founded in 2022 on research from The Rockefeller University, its lead candidate NVG-2089 is a first-in-class recombinant Fc fragment that engages type II Fc receptors to recapitulate the anti-inflammatory benefits of IVIg without immunosuppression or the supply constraints of plasma-derived products. The company raised a $161M Series B in December 2024 to push NVG-2089 into Phase 2 for CIDP and other indications.
Therini Bio, Inc.
Therini Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing fibrin-targeting immunotherapies for neurodegenerative and retinal diseases driven by vascular dysfunction. Founded in 2019 on the neurovascular research of Dr. Katerina Akassoglou at UCSF and the Gladstone Institutes, the company's lead antibody THN391 selectively blocks fibrin's inflammatory epitope to halt chronic neuroinflammation without interfering with normal blood clotting. Backed by roughly $145M in total funding from investors including Eli Lilly, Sanofi Ventures, Merck's MRL Ventures and the Dementia Discovery Fund, Therini is advancing THN391 into Phase 1b trials for Alzheimer's disease and diabetic macular edema.
Sandy Mou
Sandy Mou, MD, is the Chief Executive Officer and Board Executive Director of CORXEL Pharmaceuticals, a New Jersey- and Shanghai-linked biotech developing an oral small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist for obesity and diabetes. A Fudan-trained clinician turned pharma executive with nearly three decades at GSK, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and MSD, she led MSD China's oncology unit into the country's top three within three years and later took Shanghai Allist public on the STAR Market before joining JIXING - now CORXEL - in early 2023.
Stan Abel
Stan Abel is President and CEO of ProJenX, a clinical-stage biotech spun out of Columbia University research and Project ALS, racing to get its lead drug prosetin - an oral MAP4K inhibitor - into ALS patients after two decades of laboratory work and a $15 million Series A.
John Crowley
John Francis Crowley is the President & CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the world's largest biotech trade association with 1,100+ member companies in 30+ countries. A Georgetown and Harvard Business School alumnus, Navy Reserve veteran who served in Afghanistan, and author of 'Chasing Miracles,' Crowley co-founded Novazyme Pharmaceuticals - which sold to Genzyme for ~$175-200 million - and later built Amicus Therapeutics from a 5-person startup into a global biopharmaceutical company. His life story inspired the 2010 CBS Films feature 'Extraordinary Measures,' in which Brendan Fraser portrayed him alongside Harrison Ford. Since taking the helm at BIO in March 2024, he has repositioned the organization around U.S. biotech competitiveness, FDA modernization, and patient advocacy.
John Ramunas
John Ramunas, PhD, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rejuvenation Technologies Inc., a Mountain View, CA biotechnology company pioneering mRNA-based telomere extension therapy to reverse cellular aging. A serial entrepreneur turned neuroscientist, Ramunas spent his PhD at Stanford's Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology inventing the first safe, nonimmunogenic TERT mRNA drug - a technology now protected by 50+ patents. His company, backed by Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator, is advancing a pipeline targeting fatal orphan diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and liver cirrhosis, with the long-term vision of a single therapy taken every few years to prevent age-related disease.
Laura E. Benjamin
Laura E. Benjamin is the CEO and President of Myris Therapeutics, a Pittsburgh-based biotech building ultra-high DAR antibody-drug conjugates that fuse polymer chemistry with cancer biologics. A molecular biologist by training, she has moved from Harvard pathology labs to Eli Lilly oncology leadership to two CEO chairs - most recently steering OncXerna through more than $100 million in clinical-stage financing before taking the helm at Myris in 2024.
AltruBio Inc.
AltruBio is a clinical-stage San Francisco biotech developing first-in-class immune checkpoint enhancer antibodies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Its lead program, ALTB-268, targets PSGL-1 to restore T-cell homeostasis, and is advancing through mid-stage trials in ulcerative colitis. The company rebranded from AbGenomics in 2020 under CEO Judy Chou and closed an oversubscribed $225M Series B in 2024.
Olema Oncology
Olema Oncology is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco that develops targeted small-molecule therapies for ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer and other women's cancers. Its lead candidate, palazestrant (OP-1250), is an oral complete estrogen receptor antagonist and selective ER degrader now in two Phase 3 trials, while a second program, OP-3136, is a KAT6 inhibitor in Phase 1. Olema's bet is that better-designed oral endocrine therapy can overcome the resistance that limits today's standard of care.
Theravance Biopharma US, LLC
Theravance Biopharma is a South San Francisco biopharmaceutical company built around a focused respiratory franchise. Its flagship product, YUPELRI (revefenacin), is the first and only once-daily nebulized long-acting muscarinic antagonist approved in the U.S. for COPD maintenance, commercialized with partner Viatris. Spun out of Innoviva in 2014 and trading on Nasdaq as TBPH, the company combines a profitable marketed product with high-value royalty assets - including a now-monetized stake in GSK's TRELEGY - and runs a lean, capital-disciplined model rather than chasing scale.
Alentis Therapeutics
Alentis Therapeutics is a Swiss clinical-stage biotech built around a single, unusual biological target: Claudin-1 (CLDN1), a tight-junction protein that becomes exposed in both fibrotic tissue and solid tumors. Founded in 2019 on the discovery of physician-scientist Professor Thomas Baumert, the company develops first-in-class monoclonal antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates that bind exposed CLDN1 to reverse organ fibrosis and treat CLDN1-positive cancers. Headquartered in Allschwil near Basel with R&D roots in Strasbourg, Alentis has raised roughly $365 million across rounds, including a $181.4 million Series D in November 2024, and is running clinical trials for its lead antibody lixudebart (ALE.F02) and two ADCs, ALE.P02 and ALE.P03.
Biorce
Biorce is a Barcelona-based healthtech company building AI-native infrastructure for clinical trials. Its core product, Aika, helps pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and CROs design regulator-ready trial protocols in roughly 90 seconds, drawing on a corpus of more than one million clinical studies and 260,000+ protocols. By cutting protocol design time by at least 50% and flagging regulatory and feasibility risks early, Biorce aims to compress the years and billions of dollars it takes to bring a drug to market - so treatments reach patients sooner. In February 2026 it closed a USD $52.5M Series A led by DST Global, the largest Series A to date in the Iberian healthtech and AI ecosystem.
Brenig Therapeutics
Brenig Therapeutics is a neurology-focused biotechnology company building disease-modifying small-molecule therapies for Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Founded in 2021 and backed by $65 million in Series A funding led by NEA, Brenig pairs AI- and machine-learning-driven discovery with structure-based design to engineer brain-penetrant molecules that hit the central nervous system while sparing the rest of the body. Its lead candidate, BT-267, is a selective LRRK2 inhibitor now in human trials, followed by BT-409, a brain-selective NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor targeting neuroinflammation.
ClinChoice
ClinChoice is a mid-size, global, full-service contract research organization (CRO) that helps pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and consumer health companies run clinical trials and bring drugs and devices to market. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, the firm employs roughly 4,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, offering clinical development, biometrics, safety/pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs, post-marketing real-world evidence, and technology services. After rebranding from Fountain Medical Development (FMD K&L) in 2020 and raising a $150M Series E in 2022, ClinChoice has grown through acquisitions to serve six of the top ten pharma companies while focusing on emerging and mid-size biotech innovators.
Granata Bio
Granata Bio is a Boston-based biopharmaceutical company building a portfolio of fertility and reproductive-health therapies. Founded in 2018, it in-licenses and develops medications used in IVF outside the US, runs its own clinical programs, and is expanding into ovarian biology. Its lead asset is an investigational human menopausal gonadotropin in the pivotal Phase III GRACE study, and its 2025 acquisition of Oviva Therapeutics added a first-in-class therapeutic aimed at extending ovarian function. The company targets the multi-billion-dollar global infertility medication market with the goal of expanding patient access and improving IVF outcomes.
Noveome Biotherapeutics, Inc.
Noveome Biotherapeutics is a Pittsburgh clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company built around ST266, a multi-targeted secretome of hundreds of biologically active proteins harvested from a novel population of amnion-derived cells. Rather than transplanting cells, Noveome delivers the healing signals those cells secrete - aiming to modulate inflammation, protect nerves, and accelerate tissue repair. Its lead program treats necrotizing enterocolitis, a devastating gut disease in premature infants, with additional pipeline work spanning ophthalmology, neurology, and dermatology.
Ollin Biosciences
Ollin Biosciences is an Austin-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company building a portfolio of best-in-disease therapies for vision-threatening eye diseases. Founded in 2023 and launched publicly in September 2025 with $100M in Series A financing, Ollin in-licenses validated drug candidates and races them through head-to-head trials against the market leaders. Its lead program, OLN324, is a VEGF/Ang2 bispecific antibody for wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema that posted superior anatomic results versus Roche's blockbuster Vabysmo in a Phase 1b study.
TORL BioTherapeutics LLC
TORL BioTherapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company in Culver City, California developing antibody-based cancer therapies, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and monoclonal antibodies. Built on discoveries from the UCLA laboratory of Dennis Slamon - the scientist behind Herceptin and Ibrance - TORL is advancing a pipeline against novel cancer targets such as Claudin 6, Claudin 18.2, CDH17, and DLK1. Its lead program, TORL-1-23 (ixotatug vedotin), a CLDN6-targeted ADC, is in pivotal trials for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The company has raised over $450 million across multiple rounds, including a $96 million Series C in October 2025.
Vima Therapeutics
Vima Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts clinical-stage biotechnology company developing VIM0423, a potential first-in-class once-daily oral therapy for isolated dystonia and Parkinson's disease. The drug selectively targets muscarinic cholinergic receptors in the brain to correct the dopamine-acetylcholine imbalance underlying these movement disorders. Incubated at Atlas Venture and led by neurologist Bernard Ravina, the company emerged from stealth in 2025 and has raised a $100 million Series A.
Zag Bio
Zag Bio is a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology startup pioneering thymus-targeted medicines for autoimmune disease. Founded and incubated by Polaris Partners and launched in October 2025 with an $80M Series A, the company designs bifunctional antibodies that ferry self-antigens directly into the thymus - the organ that trains immune cells - to re-teach the body to tolerate its own tissue rather than attack it. Its lead program, ZAG-101, aims to prevent or delay Type 1 diabetes by inducing durable, antigen-specific central tolerance instead of broad immunosuppression.
Crossbow Therapeutics, Inc.
Crossbow Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company building a new class of cancer immunotherapies. Its T-Bolt platform engineers TCR-mimetic antibodies - T-cell engagers that recognize tiny peptide fragments displayed on a cancer cell's surface (peptide-HLA complexes), opening up intracellular proteins that conventional antibodies cannot reach. The lead program, CBX-250, is a first-in-class T-cell engager in a Phase 1 trial for relapsed or refractory myeloid malignancies. Backed by more than $157M in venture funding, Crossbow aims to expand the universe of targetable cancer antigens.
Regenacy Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Regenacy Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing oral, isoform-selective histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors to restore normal protein function. Spun out in 2016 from the assets of Acetylon Pharmaceuticals after Celgene's acquisition, Regenacy's lead drug ricolinostat (ACY-1215) is a selective HDAC6 inhibitor in clinical development for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy and other peripheral neuropathies, with an additional portfolio of HDAC1,2 inhibitors targeting blood diseases and cognitive disorders.
Simcha Therapeutics
Simcha Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company in New Haven, Connecticut that uses directed evolution to engineer next-generation cytokine immunotherapies for cancer. Its lead program, ST-067, is a first-in-class 'decoy-resistant' interleukin-18 (IL-18) variant engineered to evade the natural decoy protein (IL-18BP) that tumors exploit to silence the immune system. Spun out of Aaron Ring's lab at Yale School of Medicine and backed by $40M in Series B financing, Simcha is advancing ST-067 through Phase 1/2 trials in solid tumors and partnering with Janssen to armor CAR T cell therapies.
Terran Biosciences
Terran Biosciences is a platform biotech developing therapeutics and technologies for neurological and psychiatric disease. It runs one of the industry's largest psychedelic development programs - psilocybin, LSD, MDMA derivatives and novel prodrugs - alongside late-stage schizophrenia assets licensed from Sanofi and Pierre Fabre, GMP psychedelic manufacturing, and NM-101, an FDA-cleared cloud platform for neuromelanin MRI analysis.
Calluna Pharma
Calluna Pharma is an Oslo-based clinical-stage biotech building first-in-class antibodies that switch off the upstream signals driving inflammation and fibrosis. Formed in 2024 from the merger of Oxitope Pharma and Arxx Therapeutics and backed by a EUR 75 million Series A, the company targets damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) such as S100A4 to halt diseases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at their root rather than managing symptoms.